The improvements described herein relate to technologies for secure ballot image processing, ballot printing, and ballot layout authentication and verification.
Of great importance in maintaining the integrity of the voting process is ensuring that only authentic ballots are used during an election. In addition, due to the disconnected nature of optical scan based voting systems (in which an optical scanner is used to interpret voter intent and tabulate paper ballots that were previously filled-out by voters), it is imperative that the system can identify and verify that the content of the printed ballot matches the electronic definition that the system uses to interpret and process the ballot. In this regard, it is desirable to develop a ballot that includes certain security features to deter unauthorized printing, copying or counterfeiting of the ballot, as well as secure identifying information for the ballot layout.